What Is the Shopify Catalog Feature? 3 Types and Their Differences
Let's start by sorting out the differences between the three catalog features.
There Are Three Types of Catalogs
Shopify's catalog feature is "a mechanism for customizing your product lineup and prices for a specific customer group."
There are three types of catalogs, each targeting a different kind of sales channel.
- Regional market catalogs: A feature for showing different products or prices by region (country/area)
- B2B market catalogs: A feature for setting up dedicated products and prices for each wholesale company you sell to
- Retail market catalogs: A feature for showing different products or prices by in-person (POS) store location
Before reading further, check which of these types matches what you're trying to do in your own store.
Overview of Regional Market Catalogs
Regional market catalogs work together with Shopify's "Markets" feature. A market is a mechanism for grouping and managing the countries or regions you sell to.
With a regional market catalog, you can configure the following on a per-market (region group) basis.
- Hide specific products (e.g., exclude products you don't sell in Japan)
- Adjust prices by region (e.g., raise prices by 10% for North America)
- Set an individual price for a specific product
Regional market catalogs are available on any Shopify plan.
Overview of B2B Market Catalogs
B2B market catalogs are a feature used for business-to-business wholesale sales. You can set up a dedicated product lineup and pricing for each company (business) you sell to, or for each of their locations.
You can vary wholesale prices by company, publish products to only specific companies, and set quantity rules or volume-based discounts for bulk purchases.
As of the June 2026 update (Spring '26 Edition), the core features — creating company profiles, volume-based pricing, and up to 3 B2B catalogs assigned via a market — are now available on the Basic, Grow, and Advanced plans at no extra cost.
Some features, such as assigning catalogs directly to company locations and installment payments or prepayments, still require the Shopify Plus plan.
The blog article below explains Shopify B2B in detail. Please use it as a reference.
Overview of Retail Market Catalogs [POS Pro / Shopify Plus Only]
Retail market catalogs are a feature for in-person sales using Shopify POS. You can set prices and product visibility rules that differ from your online store, on a per-store-location basis.
For example, you can set different prices for Store A and Store B, or manage products that are sold only at a specific store.
However, customizing retail catalogs requires the POS Pro add-on or the Shopify Plus plan.
The rest of this article focuses mainly on regional and B2B markets.
How to Create a Catalog [Common to Regional and B2B]
Both regional market catalogs and B2B market catalogs are created from the same screen. The general flow is as follows.
- Create a catalog from "Markets" > "Catalogs" in the admin
- Set the catalog name, currency, and price adjustment (an overall adjustment or individual prices)
- Select the products to include in the catalog
- Assign the created catalog to a regional market or to B2B
Create a New Catalog
From the left-hand menu in the admin, go to "Markets" > "Catalogs" and click "Create catalog."
First, enter a name for the catalog in the "Title" field. This name is for administrative purposes only and is never shown to customers. Giving it a name that indicates its purpose — such as "North America" or "Company A only" — makes it easier to manage as you accumulate more catalogs.
Image source: Shopify
The publishing status next to the title lets you start using the catalog right away if you select "Active." If you'd rather review the settings before using it, select "Draft."
Set the Pricing
In the catalog's "Pricing" section, you can adjust prices in two ways.
Overall Price Adjustment
In the "Price adjustment" field of the pricing section, enter a percentage and choose "increase" or "decrease." For example, setting it to "increase by 10%" displays every product in the catalog at 10% above its base price.
Individual Pricing
If you want a specific product priced differently, enter the amount individually in the "Products" section. A product with an individual price set is not affected by the overall price adjustment.
For example, even if the overall adjustment is set to increase by 10%, if you set an individual price of ¥10,000 for a particular product, that product will display to customers at ¥10,000.
Currency Settings
You can also choose the catalog's currency under "Price list currency." Note that the currency your customers actually see and pay in follows the market's currency settings, not the catalog's currency.
Set Which Products to Include or Exclude
The "Products" section manages which products are included in the catalog. By default, all products are included, so if there are products you want to exclude, check them and click "Remove from catalog."
By default, new products are also automatically included in the catalog when they're added. If you want to turn this off, disable the "Automatically include new products" toggle.
Assign the Catalog to a Market or Trading Partner
A catalog you've created only takes effect once you assign it to a market or trading partner. The steps differ depending on what you're assigning it to, so check the one that matches your use case.
Click "Add markets" below the title field, then switch between the "Regional" and "B2B" tabs. Select the market you want to assign it to.
For regional markets, you can also click the + icon next to the "Catalogs" setting to select the catalog you want to assign.
Catalog Inheritance for Sub-Markets
Within a regional market, you can create a "sub-market" under an existing market. For example, as shown in the image below, you might create a "Canada" sub-market under a "North America" market.
A sub-market inherits its parent market's catalog settings by default. On top of that, you can also add catalogs unique to the sub-market or change its prices.
If the same product appears in both the parent catalog and the sub-market's catalog, the more specific sub-market price takes priority.
Key Points to Keep in Mind When Managing Catalogs
Here are three key points to keep in mind when managing your catalogs.
Pricing Rules When Multiple Catalogs Are Assigned
You can assign multiple catalogs to a single regional market or company location. In that case, the price shown to the customer is determined by the following rules.
Regional Markets
If each catalog contains different products, all of the products are shown. If the same product appears in multiple catalogs, the lower price is shown.
B2B Markets
The basic logic is the same as for regional markets. However, if the same product appears both in a catalog assigned directly to a company location and in a catalog assigned to the B2B market, the company location's price (the more specific setting) takes priority.
Bulk Updates Using CSV
If you have a large number of products, bulk-updating your catalog via a CSV file is convenient.
Go to "Markets" > "Catalogs" in the admin, open the target catalog, and select "Import" in the Products section. Upload your CSV file, review the preview, and run the import to finish.
The first time you import, it's smoothest to first use "Export" to output the format, then edit the price column in that format. The field you'll change is "Fixed Price."
[For B2B Markets] Quantity Rules and Volume-Based Pricing
B2B market catalogs come with pricing features that are convenient for wholesale.
Quantity rules let you set a "minimum order quantity," "maximum order quantity," and "order increment (lot size)" for each product. For example, you can set a condition like "minimum of 10, orderable in increments of 5."
Volume-based pricing is a mechanism that automatically applies a discount when a customer buys a large quantity at once. You can set something like "10% off the unit price for orders of 50 or more," with up to 10 quantity tiers per product.
Both of these settings can be configured per product from the product management screen within the catalog.
